Prime Minister Bob Hawke promised a treaty in 1988. Why did it fail? | ABC News

Описание: While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make up just 3.2 per cent of Australia's population, nearly 30 per cent of those in the Northern Territory are First Nations - the highest proportion of any state or territory in the country.

Long before the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the NT has been at the forefront of Australia's Aboriginal rights movement - from the Yirrkala bark petitions in 1963, to the Wave Hill walk-off for Aboriginal workers' rights in 1966, and the handing of the Barunga Statement to Prime Minister Bob Hawke in 1988.

It was during Hawke's visit to the Territory in 1988 when he promised a treaty would be forged between Aboriginal people and the Australian government, but it's a pledge that never came to fruition.

More than three decades on, the failed treaty is playing into the Voice debate in the NT. And those who drove the push for fairness then are still waiting and still fighting to see if there will be any real change in their lifetimes.

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